Allison Reisinger plays chords on her violin, tuning as she waits for her call. When it’s time to show her stuff, she steps onto the stage, a picture of confidence and concentration. Faculty judges sit below, pens ready. Allison takes a deep breath and lifts her instrument to her shoulder. Her fingers and bow slyly dance across the strings.
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You probably know families with a run of talent. History is full of them, in both pure brainery and in hands-on and physical achievements, from sports to art, music to politics.
It makes you wonder. Does talent follow bloodlines?
Father Peter Egeli and daughter Lisa Egeil, a pair of Southern Maryland painters, are just two in a family deeply rooted in the arts.
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Among the lives changed September 11, 2001 were my Southern Maryland family’s. Our change was for the better.
“How would you feel if I learned how to play the bagpipes?”
My firefighter husband Bill had never picked up a musical instrument in his life — and he’s starting with the bagpipes?
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One man is the difference between life and death for creatures great and small

Deep in the maze of Chesapeake Ranch Estates, St. Francis of Bay Country gives sanctuary and modern medicine to the creatures of our wild. From tiny to the mighty, all are welcome — within the guidelines of federal and state agencies and six permits that control the work of Orphaned Wildlife Rescue Center.
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This time of year gardeners feel the itch for warm weather. We’re wistful about anything green and have gardening books spread out in inconvenient places in eagerness for another season.
Scratch the itch by honing your design skills with plantsman, author and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens executive director William Cullina. He comes to Annapolis March 7 to talk about the botany of design.
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I’m always surprised to discover someone world-famous living nearby. In New York City it would be routine, but not so much here. Everyone has to live somewhere, but why Bay Country?
For many people, home is dictated by family roots or livelihood. For some, it’s a choice of desirable characteristics rather than ties.
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When the first cold winds of winter blow through, some intrepid riders pile on layer upon layer of warm clothing to keep riding outdoors. Still, snow, ice and frozen ground often send them hunting for the friend of a friend’s indoor arena.
Warmer-blooded riders scheme ways to get themselves and their horses to warmer climates, trading down-filled coats for T-shirts and heavy blankets for lightweight flysheets.
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16 Chesapeake neighbors answer one tough question: What do you see in your future in 2015?

New years make optimists of us. Once again, we believe that determination or luck will win out, making us healthy, wealthy and wise in the unmapped year ahead. If past years have brought disappointments and damage, well, let old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind. Let the good times roll!
For all our faith and frenzy, every new year is full of surprises likely to steamroll our puny human plans.
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Since 2002, Shady Side musician Maggie Sansone’s Celtic Christmas concerts have filled historic Christ Church in West River with the tingling sounds of hammered dulcimer, harp and fiddle. Inspired by a visit to Ireland to study early Christianity, then-rector Sandra Cordingley invited Sansone’s collaboration.
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